I seriously doubt that Alitalia will go under. At one time Air France was interested in buying them, then backed out, but Italy's whole reputation rests on Alitalia, and I seriously doubt that the Pope's airline will be allowed to go under.

I used to think that it would be unlikely to see Alitalia go under, but now I am of the opinion that Alitalia will not survive. There doesn't appear to be any airline willing to come in and purchase them, and I don't think there is much more that the Italian government can do at this point. I would predict that Alitalia will probably disappear, and then sometime in the future a new Italian airline will be launched with no debt and newer planes.

Apparently Alitalia can't guarantee any more flights after today. I'm surprised that the Italian government can't/won't do more to save the national airline, and similarly that SAS are teetering on the brink of going bust too.

There is some hope for Alitalia. Some of the Unions have agreed to deals which would see CAI take over the airline's profitable operations and trim the airline to 12,500 staff. Four of the nine unions have agreed, but the pilots and flight crew are still not in agreement with the offer.

3:50 came and went with no deal, so the investor group has pulled out. That leaves Alitalia very close to the edge. The government is saying that they will fly normally this weekend, but beyond that is a big question mark at this point.

The latest from AP has Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi saying that "the situation is dramatic. We could be facing an abyss."

Amazingly given how dire the news was over the last few weeks, but probably not so surprising if you consider what the Italian government has done to prop up the airline in the past, somehow Alitalia has survived, at least for a little bit longer.

CAI, after abandoning their offer, were persuaded to come back to the table, and all the unions eventually agreed to the offer (though some tough negotiations still remain). Further, it looks like either Air France/KLM or Lufthansa will take a "minority" stake in the airline (in Lufthansa's case, it could be as much to 49.9%, which is just a .1% away from not being a minority).

The way things are going, there will probably only be three airlines left in Europe - Lufthansa, Air France/KLM and British Airways. Lufthansa already own Swiss and SN Brussel and are on track to buy bmi, SAS and Austrian! The merge of Air France / KLM is one of the largest airlines in the world!